If hotel rates are any indication, it’s still offseason in Snowmass Village — but not for long. June 10 marks the first Thursday night free concert on Fanny Hill, followed the next day with the summer’s kickoff of “Fridays on the Mall.”
But for someone wanting an early-season vacation or even staycation as soon as Saturday, hotel rooms are going for between $150 and $300, in general. And while it’s certainly still possible to find lodging in a similar price range in Aspen, particularly at some of the more affordable staples, the bigger names in hospitality already are commanding price tags between $600 and $1,500 a night.
Jimmy Yeager isn’t surprised — the proprietor behind his namesake Jimmy’s An American Restaurant and Bar said Sunday that he is anticipating a busier early season this year, with an even busier close to summer.
“I think that historically, from the time that the Aspen Music Festival starts in late June and ends in late August, Aspen is full,” he said.
But things are already heating up since his restaurant reopened from its offseason break on May 26.
“I think this year what we will see is a busier beginning and a busier end of the season. Witnessing what we saw last summer — it was very enlightening: Aspen is a destination regardless of events or not,” he said Sunday. “So the desire for people to be here, we always thought, was event driven in the summer and also recreational. But life in the time of COVID tells us that people just want to be here, period. I think people are here, it’s going to be a busy pre-music festival and a very busy post-music festival. I think September will be off the charts.”
September has been the benefactor, as it were, of many of June’s traditional events. Because of the extensive planning periods for larger happenings, many entities that host flagship events in June instead opted for September, when organizers felt more confident that public health orders would settle as upticks in vaccinations continued nationwide.
It was a point brought up during a business forum hosted by the Aspen Chamber Resort Association Tuesday.
“I’ve even heard that September is the new June,” said Ralf Garrison during his economic forecasting presentation. Garrison is the director of DestiMetrics, a research firm that specializes in occupancy rates in resort communities.
Yeager’s assessment Sunday echoed some of Garrison’s insights that he shared during Tuesday’s forum — namely, that Aspen’s brand loyalty will continue to help the city’s recovery as travel restrictions continue and, hopefully, continue to be lifted.
“I’ve noticed over the years that Aspen does a really good job at keeping their eye on the ‘true north,’ and the brand loyalty,” he said. “As international comes back and air [travel] comes back, I would expect them to be the beneficiaries of international coming around the corner.”
That international travel hasn’t come to fruition, yet — but domestic visitors are keeping Aspen as busy as ever already. And town is starting to come back online in ways reminiscent of before the world shifted to completely virtual platforms.
Ryan Chadwick, for instance, was all smiles Thursday sitting outside Nakazawa, which opens Wednesday. The patio of his Aspen Pie Shop was buzzing and without an available table. Perhaps most exciting of all, though, was that Escobar Aspen was opening the following day, on Friday, he said.
With COVID-19 restrictions, bars and nightclubs have been largely shuttered throughout the valley.
“It feels really, really great,” Chadwick said.
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Even before events come back, Aspen already abuzz with activity - Aspen Daily News
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